Exit rows - are you willing and able?

When you're on a flight, do you ever look at who is in the exit row and wonder, in case there is a real emergency, will that person be able to open the door and throw it out?

Last week there was an elderly woman in the aisle seat of the exit row (Chicago to Champaign flight). I was across in the single side. I'd guess her age to be around 75 although she was a heavy smoker (going by the smell) which ages you more, so it was hard to tell. The flight attendant is required to ask everyone in the exit row if they are willing and able to open the door in case of an emergency. The guy in the window seat says "yes", I say "yes". The elderly lady says "well, I'll just rely on him to do it". The flight attendant very patiently says "what if he's unconscious?". The lady says "well that won't happen". This conversation goes on, I swear, for 5 minutes. The flight attendant gets a gold star for patience...she was wanting the lady to say "no" so she could move her to a different seat. That didn't happen - the lady finally says "yes".

So this raises a question - should there be rules for being too old to sit in an exit seat? I think there are rules about children not being in an exit row. There's no way that lady could have opened that door let alone thrown it out of the plane.




Here's a picture of an exit row "wanna be". He was in my seat (Champaign to Chicago) and wasn't happy to move (actually had he been a little more cordial, I would have happily given him that seat as he was fairly tall and the leg room is pretty tight on the little regional jets). What was really irritating was the fact that he left his bag and coat in the overhead by my seat which meant I had to put my stuff further back in the plane (like swimming upstream, once you land, to retrieve it). I even asked nicely and offered to move it for him, but he didn't want his stuff moved. So, for that, here he is!! Did your mama not teach you any manners??? (I had 15 minutes to run from the G concourse to the end of K, so time was an issue that morning!!)